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3/4

For the amount of work this was, it was good but definitely needs some help in the directions. I will likely make it again but with the following adjustments: 1) keep the ganache COLD, not room temperature and either refrigerate (for 30 minutes) or freeze (for 10 minutes) before trying to apply the white chocolate cream layer. Sliding around is definitely a problem if you don't do this! 2) make the frosting in a double boiler - it will go much quicker and therefore be easier on your whisking hand. After it reaches the ribbon stage, THEN transfer it to the mixer. 3) reduce the amount of white chocolate cream you make - it makes more like 8-10 cups and you only need 6 in the recipe during assembly. 4) cut back on the peppermint flavoring in the white chocolate cream - I agree with other reviewers who say it was very sweet, and that's okay, but you can barely taste the chocolate over all of the extract it calls for. 5) refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours before serving. 6) do not try to use a cake dome - they are not tall enough and with adding the frosting layer, there is no room to place the top on anyway (on the sides). Lastly, ensure you have plenty of time to make this - it is not a cake you throw together in an hour or two (I bake a lot and it took me about three hours) and you need patience when assembling it.

vandenbsm
from Chandler, AZ
/ 02.15.2015

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Caution: The ratings are skewed. Someone posted the same 4 fork review about 18 times over. Be warned.
The moment my boyfriend said, "Wow, this is a lot of sugar," we should have seen disaster ahead. We decided to make this cake as a fun holiday project, and it was fun...for the entire six hours we spent working on this monstrosity in the kitchen (admittedly there was a break to bake some cookies while all this chilled). At the end, each individual item--the cake, the ganache, the cream and the frosting--was much too sweet. When placed together, they comprised an architectural disaster on the level of the Babylonian walls. Layer after layer slide from cake stand onto the table, eventual devolving into two separate baked goods, one of which is a trifle. We would caution anyone who decides to make this particular cake to either a) change the recipe liberally according to your hopefully broad experience with layer cakes or, b) read the reviews made before the repeated post. Option b will probably dissuade you and encourage you to look elsewhere for a Christmas recipe.

batterboys
/ 12.16.2013

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Absolutely delicious! A great, rich chocolate cake. It is quite a lot of work, but well worth it for a special occasion.

czkathy
from St. Louis MO
/ 02.14.2013

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Made this cake for my bookclub. It was as delicious as it was impressive. I made the recipe exactly as written and I wouldn't change a thing. The only thing I would say is that you need to prepare - I started two days ahead - this isn't a last minute dessert, but well worth the time.

A Cook
from Rochester, MI
/ 11.02.2012

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i made this wonderful cake and loved
it.I did change a few simple things. I
put one half teaspoon less peppermint in
the white chocolate cream, and also one
half cup less of cream. It was a pain
cutting it. Because of the loose whipped
cream, but other then that it was a hit!
I made it for a birthday cake for a 17
year old and every one munched it down.
What a beautiful cake. thank you Bon
Appietit for this wonderful reciepe.

jazzy45
from Washington
/ 04.29.2012

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This cake was good but a lot of work. I should have reread the reviews before making it - I definitely thought the peppermint flavor was too strong, would have preferred the white chocolate cream without any peppermint at all, and the cake was a bit crumbly - maybe some mayo would have helped, as someone suggested. I used my stick blender while heating the sugar/egg white mixture on the stove and it took less than 5 minutes to reach the marshmallow cream consistency, then moved the bowl to my Kitchenaid and it fluffed up just fine. Will keep parts of this recipe but won't make again as printed.

lchasson
from Milan Italy
/ 04.09.2012

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I made this cake for my supper club's Christmas gathering - it turned out beautifully and tasted amazing. This is a bit of a labor intensive recipe, but well worth the time and effort put into it. After reading some of the reviews, I halved the amount of peppermint extract where required, and I used a different recipe all together for the marshmallow frosting (I found a recipe that uses marshmallow fluff as the base to make the frosting - was very easy). Would definitely make this again for a special occasion!

A Cook
from Virginia
/ 12.10.2011

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me09798 - We want to know WHY it was a disaster? Did it taste bad or not come together right? Did the frosting work but the cake didn't? Come on, give us some help here! :)

rjesak
/ 05.06.2011

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I am a very experienced baker, that said this cake is a disaster

me09798
from cape cod ma
/ 02.03.2011

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I've just read up this type of icing in Joy of Cooking, which calls it boiled white icing. They recommend cooking the sugar syrup first, then at the temperature where it streams off a spoon in thick threads, trickling it very slowly into the egg whites as you beat them. It says this cooks the egg whites as you beat them. I don't know whether this would be more reliable than the combined approach described in this recipe, but this version does seem to let a lot of people down.